The present invention refers to a device for collecting and discharging solid matter, flowing in conduits such as, for example, sewers.
The aim of the invention is to provide a simple and efficient device for collecting and discharging waste matter with a minimum of disturbance in the flow in the conduit and having sufficient capacity for use also with large conduits and culverts.
Previously known devices for collecting and discharging refuse have included a stationary grid arranged transversely with respect to the conduit, cooperating with a vertically reciprocal fork device, or with continuous filter webs of different designs and mesh widths. For operational efficiency it is unfavorable to have shafts, pulleys and other parts of the driving mechanism below the water level, as fibrous waste matter easily collects upon such parts.
The fork devices have certain advantages, but as parts of the driving mechanism preferably should not project below the water level, a rather high mounting structure will be required. The height thereof will increase with the depth of the conduit, as well as with the level of the discharge for the collected matter.
The continuous filter webs suffer from certain disadvantages. The downwardly moving portion of the web will always turn its inward face towards the direction of water flow. This means that particles having passed through the upwardly moving portion of the web may be caught upon the inward face of the web, and will be pressed into the same when the web passes over the lead rollers or the like.
Grid structures including reciprocal bars are known in the art, but they have not operated satisfactorily in conduits, neither with respect to collecting capacity, nor with respect to simplicity and reliability.